


Our Bedroom after the War

by smaragdbird



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Character Death Fix, Family Feels, Fix-It, Happy Ending, Kallus almost talks himself out of a good thing, M/M, Relationship Discussions, Wedge gives good advice, Zeb is very patient
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2020-01-15 21:03:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18507034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smaragdbird/pseuds/smaragdbird
Summary: Now that the war against the Empire is officially over, the Ghost Crew is making plans for their future.All of them but one.





	Our Bedroom after the War

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wrennette](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wrennette/gifts).



> You mentioned in your letter that you love fix-it's and I've been itching to write one for Rebels for the longest time (though thankfully it wasn't Kallus/Zeb who needed fixing, canon was very nice to them).
> 
> Hope you'll like it :)

Peace. The word echoed throughout the galaxy. After five years of open warfare there would be peace. 24 years after the rise of the Empire it had come to an end. The remnants of Loyalists had conceded and would withdraw from the worlds they were still holding. These worlds would be free to join the Republic or to go their own way.

“Now comes the hard part”, Hera said when she brought the news of the peace talks back. As a general of the Republic she had been invited to be part of the conference.

After the destruction of the 2nd Death Star and the deaths of the Emperor and Darth Vader they had all started to talk about what they would do after the war because suddenly that kind of future had seemed possible.

“What do you guys want to do now?” Wedge asked. He was still on leave with his leg having been broken twice in a row now but the news had lifted his spirits for now.

“What will you do?” Ezra asked in return. “Back to Corellia to fly freighters?”

“Haha”, Wedge replied, rolling his eyes. “I’m staying with the Fleet. I haven’t got anywhere else to go.”

“Luke and I are still debating where to put the new Jedi school”, Ezra told them. “He thinks Lothal is too far off the beaten track.”

“Are you going to keep the whole kidnapping small children to train them part of the old Jedi?” Wedge asked. Ever since Rex had told them about that part of the old Jedi Order Wedge’s opinion of them had steadily declined.

Ezra shook his head. “We’re tossing out a lot of rules Kanan told us about.”

“Are you going with them?” Wedge asked Kanan.

“I’m leaving that decision up to Hera”, Kanan replied.

Hera rolled her eyes. “Oh sure, let me have all the responsibility.”

“You had it all these years”, Kanan said. “Why change a good thing?”

Hera gave him a fond smile. “I quite like the idea of settling down. I mean what else have we been fighting for?”

“Ryloth is free. We could go there”, Ezra suggested.

“My father would love that”, Hera said dryly. “He wasn’t even a big fan of the Jedi when they were fighting with him. Besides I don’t need to go back to Ryloth. But I like the idea of Lothal or maybe Naboo. It’s supposed to be nice there.”

“I’m going back to Mandalore”, Sabine said when she felt the others’ eyes on her. “We earned our freedom and now we have to find our place in the galaxy again.” She looked at Kanan who was nodding slightly as if he was feeling that she was glancing at him.

“What about you, Rex?” Kanan asked.

“Not many clones left”, Rex replied. “I’m going to find a nice and quiet planet. Kes already offered to join his family on Yavin. Pathfinders look out for each other, that’s what he said”, he chuckled wistfully.

“And you, Zeb?” Wedge asked. For a moment he had looked at Kallus but Kallus had made a small gesture that had made Wedge pass him over with his question.

“I’m probably heading to Lirasan”, Zeb said, casting a glance at Kallus who refused to meet his eyes. “Don’t know if I’ll stay there but I like the idea of settling down, too. Think I’m ready for that again.”

“If we’re all splitting up”, Ezra asked, “Who gets to keep the Ghost?”

Hera crossed her arms over her chest. “Who do you think?”

Ezra had lived with her long enough to know when he was entering dangerous territory. “I was just wondering out loud.”

/

“I have a request”, Kallus said when he followed Hera into Mon Mothma’s office and had greeted her.

“Go ahead”, Hera gave him an encouraging smile.

Kallus opened a holo-image on his com-link of an Imperial officer not older than his early twenties. “If possible I’d like Lieutenant Yogar Lyste to be spared. I framed him as Fulcrum to maintain my cover and Thrawn put him in custody to keep me under the illusion that I had been successful. If he hasn’t committed any war crimes since then I’d like to request to put him on the list of pardoned Imperial officers.”

“Was he your friend?” Mon Mothma asked.

Kallus hesitated but eventually he shook his head. “But I like to think we could’ve been if we hadn’t been on different sides of the war.”

“Thank you, Captain Kallus”, Mon Mothma said. “We will take it under consideration when we review the officers who chose to surrender instead of leaving for the Unknown Regions.”

A good number of loyalists, some of the most fanatical members of the Empire were following Admiral Sloane to leave the known galaxy. Kallus wondered what they thought they would find there and why the Republic would let them go when some of the Empire’s biggest war criminal were among them, though Grand Admiral Sloane had the reputation of being a reasonable woman.

“Thank you, ma’am”, Kallus said and hoped that Lyste would not be among the Loyalists.

“May I ask what your plans are, Captain?” Mon Mothma asked. 

“I’m not sure, yet, Ma’am”, Kallus replied. He glanced at Hera to which she replied with a knowing smile. “My decision is not just mine to make.”

/

“Fulcrum?” Wedge said when Kallus came back from his meeting with Her and Mon Mothma. He had never broken the habit of calling Kallus by that name even when it had led to some confusion since Kallus wasn’t the only Fulcrum agent in the Rebellion.

“Sorry about your leg”, Kallus said, not for the first time.

“Not your fault this time”, Wedge gave him a loop-sided smile. “Are you going to stay in the Fleet too?”

“I don’t know.”

“Because of Zeb?”

Kallus nodded. “You heard him. He wants to go to Lirasan to be with his people again.”

“And you’re going to go with him?”

“He’s not going to want me there.”

“Why not?”

“You know that I was part of the campaign that slaughtered his people?” When Wedge nodded, Kallus said, “That’s why.”

“But didn’t he already forgive you for that? I mean you guys have been together for years.”

“It’s one thing to be together while fighting a war and another to settle down on a planet of a people I helped to kill.”

“So you do want to stay with him”, Wedge said triumphantly. Getting Kallus to talk about his emotions was a little like drawing blood from stone.

Kallus looked over his shoulder to make sure no one else was listening in before he said, “Zeb’s the one. I don’t expect there to be anyone else and if even there is no one else will have that kind of impact on my life again.”

“Wow”, Wedge said eventually. “That’s…you should tell him that.”

Kallus shook his head. “If I did he’d feel obligated and I don’t want to stand in the way of his happiness. Just like you did with Nora.”

“That’s different, Nora was already married. What if you are what makes Zeb happy?” Wedge replied.

“He deserves better than me.”

“Isn’t that his choice to make?”

To his surprise Kallus nodded. “Which is why I’m not breaking up with him. I’m simply leaving the decision about the future to him.

“Earlier it looked like he would appreciate some input from you”, Wedge frowned. “I think you guys should really talk about it.”

/

Zeb was already in bed but still awake when Kallus came to their quarters. He started to undress when Zeb said, “You were quiet earlier.”

Kallus shrugged. “I stopped making plans for the future when I became Fulcrum. At the time it seemed unlikely the Rebellion would succeed and even less likely that I’d live to see it if they did.”

“Well you did. What about now?”

“The peace agreement is less than a day old.” He slipped under the covers. Sleeping with Zeb was like sleeping with a furnace, even on Hoth he hadn’t felt cold once.

“We don’t have to head for to Lirasan if you don’t want to.”

“It’s not about what I want.”

“That’s not what this sounds like.”

“Yes I am sure the Lasat of Lirasan will be ecstatic to welcome home one of their heroes when he’s accompanied by a man who helped to slaughter their people.”

“You’re more than that Kal and you know it.”

“Maybe but I still did it, I was still part of it. And they will look down on you for choosing to be with me.”

“They wouldn’t be the first.”

“Passing comments are one thing, constant judgement from your peers another.”

“They’re going to judge me for failing to protect the Royal Family anyway. I should’ve died with them, for them. That was my job.”

Kallus shook his head. “If you go to Lirasan without me all they’re going to see in you is Captain Garazeb Orrelios, who avenged Lasan by toppling the Empire.” There was one more card he could play. It wasn’t an argument they had had before, mostly because Kallus had sincerely not believed that he would escape this war alive and with Zeb.

“And?”

“If you take me with you, it’ll hinder your prospects for companionship after I’m gone.”

“You think I’m just going to move on after you’re dead?”

“You better move on after I’m dead. I’ve only got another 30 years or so, you’ve got hundreds.”

Zeb rolled his eyes with a sigh. “Let me worry about that if it comes to it.”

“If?” Kallus raised his eyebrows.

“Hey, considering all the weird shit I’ve seen, sudden immortality doesn’t seem that farfetched”, he shrugged. “But like I said we don’t have to go to Lira-San.”

“But you want to.”

“Sure but not at the price of breaking up with you.”

“I’m not…that was not what I was trying to imply. If you choose Lirasan I will go with you.”

“Okay, but what do you want?”

Kallus took a deep breath. “You”, he said. “I want to be with you. I wasn’t lying earlier, I really didn’t make any plans beyond this.”

“Karabast you really thought…what if I hadn’t made it? What would you have done then?”

“Probably stayed with the Republic, trained a new generation of spies and saboteurs and that would’ve been it”, Kallus recalled Wedge’s earlier advice and added, “You turned my whole life around, Zeb. Even if you had died and if I’d meet someone else, they wouldn’t have the same impact as you had. Crashing with you on Bahryn is the most significant event of my life. It changed everything.”

For a long moment neither of them moved, simply staring at each other, then Zeb broke out into a string of curses in his mother tongue, that ended with, “Karabast, you damned, self-sacrfical idiot!”

Kallus shrugged, there was nothing he had to add to his words.

“Do you really think I haven’t told my people about you?”

“I…no, I didn’t”, Kallus admitted. It certainly wasn’t a secret amongst the Alliance but he hadn’t thought that Zeb would tell anyone else.

“Other than you, I planned for the eventuality that we’d both make it out”, Zeb declared proudly. “There is a place for you on Lira-San if you want it.”

Kallus gave a shaky laugh as he rubbed a hand over his face. “Was there anything I said that makes you think I won’t come with you?”

Zeb grinned as he shrugged. “You could always change your mind.”

“I’m stubborn, you should know that by now.”

“Stubborn enough to try and talk yourself out of a good thing”, Zeb countered, cuffing Kallus over the head. “Idiot.”

Kallus ducked out from under his hand. “Maybe that’s why I keep you around, to remind not to get lost in my own head.”

“You keep me around?” Zeb growled playfully and pushed Kallus down on the bed, covering him with his body.

“Get off me you giant purple rug!” Kallus wheezed as he tried to wiggle out from under Zeb but he had no leverage in this position and had to get up eventually.

“I’m going to do this for the rest of your life”, Zeb said, nuzzling Kallus’ neck.

“Good”, Kallus replied, finally feeling as if the war had truly ended and peace would begin. And he and Zeb, they’d be part of it. Together.


End file.
